This week is about all things Twitter, the platform where your thoughts are limited to 280 characters but the outrage is limitless. We’ve got some neophytes in our class, so first, have a poke around in some of these how-to links:

In your response, I’d like you to respond specifically to these two viewpoints. Never tweet? ALWAYS tweet? Something in between? Give us some examples that illustrate your stance and why it’ll make the world (or at least journalism) better!

Personal Blog for Week 5

For week 5, you will publish your explainer post. Remember that a minimum of 10 meaningful links is required, and don’t forget to bring your annotated list of links to Monday’s class! (full details with the assignment)

But Before You Go…

Finally (if you haven’t already) you need to get ON Twitter. You’ve got four things to do:

Create an account if you don’t have one (or want to use a different one for class), and make sure it is public (not hidden).

Follow at least 20 people – if you’re new to Twitter, try tweeting with some hashtags (#) and tag (@) some people (start with your classmates and me if you’re anxious).

Post two tweets promoting one of your personal blog stories on two separate days, one on Thursday and one on Friday (include our course hashtag #WVUblogJ in each). We’ll compare their performance in class.

Now that you know how to write an explainer, you’re going to make one of your own. This has a specific due date (included at the end of this assignment), so make sure you’re following directions. Using the posted guidelines, you’ll do the following:

Identify a subject in your area that requires explaining (see our own explainer for details on this)

Monday, Sept. 16: Bring to class (printed) an annotated subject list. This must include your subject, why it’s timely, and a link list with sentences explaining the relevance of each. Ten links are the minimum! (10 pts for Assignment)

Thursday, Sept. 19 (any time between 10a and 4p): Publish your explainer! Remember again that a minimum of 10 meaningful links is required! (10 points for Personal Post)

ALSO for next week: We’re getting started with Twitter, so you must have done the following prior to Monday’s class:

Create a Twitter account and follow at least 20 people (most of you have already done this!)

Follow me (@thebobthe) – that’s not an ego thing, it’s just needed for our following class work, so make sure I’m able to follow you back.

Post two tweets promoting one of your personal blog stories on two separate days, one on Thursday and one on Friday (include our course hashtag #WVUblogJ in each). We’ll compare their performance in class.

An explainer isn’t based on a question with a simple answer like “why does a cat purr?” but rather one that requires breaking down some complex details with a variety of sources and evidence. They’re a common tool for online media – Vox has its own section for them – and when planning your own, it helps to look at what’s come before. Let’s go back to that Cardi B and Nicki Minaj post (oh the sacrifices I make for education) and look at its components:

Hed: What’s being explained?

The Complete History of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B’s Beef

Okay, it’s a bit of a label hed, but you definitely know what you’re getting. Any good explainer post is built around the question “Why/How did things come to this point?” Your hed should reflect this, ideally by incorporating those “Why” and “How” words.

Lede: Why explain it now?

For more than a year, Nicki Minajand Cardi B walked on eggshells while rumors of their alleged beef bubbled just below surface. Through shady interviews and sneak disses, the rappers waged a cold war. Then, during New York Fashion Week at Harper’s Bazaar Icon party, photos and video of a physical altercation between Cardi and Nicki’s parties circulated the web.

Since then, their public feud has intensified, with memorable Queen Radio rants and viral Instagram posts. But how exactly did we get here? Was it Nicki’s obsession with being the queen of rap? Is Cardi too sensitive? Below we revisit the history of Cardi B and Nicki’s long simmering feud and the events that led us here.

Explainers should be timely and clearly answer the “Why NOW” question. The beef in question dates back to June 2017, but the New York Fashion Week fight is what made it newsworthy for its Oct. 30, 2018 publication date.

Structure

This particular post takes the form of a timeline chronicling the various slights cast by B and Minaj. It’s marked by entries such as:

August 2017: Nicki denies subbing Cardi on “No Flags”

Notice how the post is broken up with subheadings that start with the date and detail what happened then. Even if you’re not doing a timeline, this bite-sized format helps make the complexity more approachable.

Support

This post in particular is strong because it not only employs strong evidence for its explanation, it brings in a strong VARIETY of sources. Consider this passage:

Coincidentally, Nicki’s original verse on “MotorSport” leaked the same day as her interview, revealing she had referenced Cardi:

I’m with a couple bad bitches that’ll rip the party
If Cardi the QB, I’m Nick Lombardi
Pull up in the space coupe, I done linked with Marty
I can actually afford to get a pink Bugatti

The final version replaced Cardi’s name with Quavo, and it’s still unclear if it was meant to be shade or a shout out. Nicki later tweeted that she changed the verse per Atlantic’s request.

How can you say someone changed their verse & forget to say Quavo TOLD me to remove my singing part (which I loved) & Atlantic told me to remove your name from my verse per your request? So how were those changes gonna happen if I didn’t “change” my verse? 😩🤣 #NickiDay#ChunLi

Here you’ve got a link to an article that leaked Minaj’s lyrics, followed by those lyrics themselves (which name Cardi B), then the detail that the final song changed “Cardi” to “Quavo,” and finally a tweet from Minaj claiming that Cardi B forced the change. That’s pretty detailed documentation!

It’s typical of the article, too: throughout, it employs links, social media posts, screenshots and video to support every claim it makes. This isn’t just gossip, it’s a fully documented account.

Planning your explainer

Here’s a few steps, via Poynter, for creating an explainer post of your own:

Figure out what to explain: What’s a subject your readers need/want to have broken down for them? Look for a question that “requires more than a fact to explain.”

Report the explainer: Poynter recommends contacting multiple experts; for a blog post, that translates into multiple explanatory links and media. Keep your questions pretty basic – think elementary school level – and along the lines of “why does this happen?”

Craft the explainer: Don’t start with history, start with why it matters now. This is similar to establishing a news peg for any story. Poynter provides a tremendous example here: After President Obama signed a bill restoring Secret Service protection to former presidents and their families, Slate asked the question “does that include presidential pets?” (you’ll have to click through for the answer)

Consider voice and style: (This one’s from The Word Factory) An explainer typically deals with a complicated subject, so it’s particularly important to avoid technical jargon or lengthy, complex sentences. Often, a more casual or conversational tone will be used to lighten a heavy subject (that’s up to the individual publication though).

Remember: You’ll have an assignment on this as well, so start thinking now about what your readers need explained!

So far, you’ve introduced yourself, determined a focus for your blog, and made your first posts. This week, you’ll identify points of contact that will help you stay in touch with your community of interest. (https://www.avclub.com/)

Part 1: Refine your focus

Last week, you created an “About” page with your blog’s mission statement. Now that you’ve had a chance to write some posts in this area, refine your “About” page and add some depth. Remember these points:

It’s not about you. Make sure your focus is a larger conversation, not a diary or “expert advice” (you’re not one) or “my crazy life” blog (nobody cares). How can you connect with a larger community?

Remember: No advice blogs, no reviews, no profile-only blogs, no whatever else I decide is off-limits (don’t worry, I’ll tell you if you’re doing it)

It’s not about everything. Avoid being too broad (e.g., “pop culture”) – if you say you will write about something general like “sports,” you’ll need to spell out what a reader might get out of reading your site compared to the countless other sports sites out there.

Think of yourself as the intersection of a Venn diagram with at least 2-3 circles

It’s not just links. Links are necessary, but a successful blog needs to add something to the information it synthesizes from elsewhere. Linking to a bunch of stories about the Pittsburgh Penguins is not blogging.

Part 2: Identify sources to help you

Blogging isn’t something you have to do on your own. With your focused topic in mind, it’s time to identify some sources to help you on that path. You will identify at least 10 individuals to follow: At least five bloggers and at least five social media accounts. Each of these should be a spiritual cousin to your own – they do something related to what you hope to do.

Social Media Example: Josh Marshall is the editor of Talking Points Memo. He tweet regularly about political coverage.

A few cautions: These can NOT be general, non-blog sites (e.g., @NYTimes, ESPN.com), but you may link to an individual blogger on such a site as long as you justify why that writer is an excellent source for you. The point is not to link to news sites you already know, it’s to find people and communities that are part of the conversation you want to join!

Part 3: Build on your community

As we’ve discussed this week, you need to get out of the way and cover your community and the current issues that concern it. After reading your sources, you must identify five timely subjects or issues they’re talking about that could serve as the focus of one (or more) of your upcoming posts. Each must include at least one link (more is better) to current discussion on the subject and explain what the focus of your post could be.

Write a synthesis post on an issue combining information from as many of your blogroll members as possible (10 pts for weekly personal blog post)

Due Dates

4p Tuesday, Sept. 10: Write a short post linking each of your 10 influencers and explaining in about a sentence each why they are relevant to covering this community of interest. (5/10 pts for Assignment #3)

Is the Internet something invented by an individual? What’s a specific surprising event you found in the timelines? What do you think keeps a social media site alive, what do you think will be the next one to die, and what might take its place? Remember, your response is due as a comment to this post no later than 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3 (note later deadline due to Labor Day holiday).

Personal

For week 3, your personal post must be connected to a news item from this week and should use the strong headline and lede tips we’ve discussed in class. As always, it must be relevant to your personal blog concept and must include:

At least three links to meaningful content. This means news stories, relevant posts, and substantive material, NOT to homepages (e.g., wvu.com) or general sites (e.g., facebook.com)

Your new blog needs a place for readers to find out what it’s about. You could do this as a first post, but over time, this will get hard to find – nobody likes scrolling, after all (well, kind of). Instead, you’re going to create an About page. Have a look at this read from blogtyrant on what makes a terrific “About Us” page – they include examples, too! With those ideas in mind, let’s get started…

Your about page should include the following sections IN THIS ORDER:

What’s the blog about? Well DUH. But this means you’ll need to know that yourself, and that means spelling out the specifics of what readers can expect. You might add some links to similar blogs (while explaining what will make yours different)

Who’s the author? Tell us your background. What are you studying? What are your interests and accomplishments? (note: Readers don’t want to hear about YOU until they’ve heard about your blog!)

Where can I find you? You’re cultivating an online presence, so let interested readers know where they can hear more from you. You needn’t use an email if you don’t want, but at the very least put up your Twitter handle.

In addition to these sections, you’ll need to include the following:

An image: Images encourage engagement. This can be a personal photo or something otherwise relevant, but don’t just give us a wall of text.

Links: At the very least, you’ll need links to some contact information (Twitter, LinkedIn), but you might also include links to your work so readers can get a sense for you.

But how do I MAKE a new page??

It’s easy! In your dashboard:

Pages > Add New

Title: “About” or “About This Blog”

Write some appropriate “about” content (you can update this as your blog grows)

Publish!

What’s due

Create an About page on your blog and post the link in a comment to THIS post. Once it’s up, I’ll add your blog to the blogroll on our course blog.

Add the Calendar widget to your blog (Appearance > Widgets), then drag the Calendar widget to your sidebar). This is required for grading, so if your blog theme does not display the calendar after you’ve added it, you’ll need to select a new theme (Appearance > Themes)

Due: 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 (must post your link as a comment TO THIS POST by that time)

We set up our WordPress blogs in class, but it’s helpful to have a guide available for troubleshooting, so here you go! Follow the handy steps below to get started – feel free to stick with me or dash ahead.

The format is YOURNAME.wordpress.com (unless you’ve got a killer name in mind, using your real name is just fine)

May take a couple tries to find one not taken

Once you’ve got a blog …

Post!

Log in & in the top infobar click “New Post”

Important!To access the main menu, enter your blog’s URL and add “/wp-admin” after it (example: interactivejournalismwvu.wordpress.com/wp-admin). There should be a BLACK bar at the top, not a blue one.

Enter a title in the top box, enter your text in the lower box (we’ll delete it later)

For more detail, go to your dashboard (link in top left of infobar > WP Admin) – in left menu, Posts > Add New

It’s preferable to compose your posts in a word processing program then paste them into the blog box

Add value! (in dashboard view only)

Images: Make sure you know where the image is, then click Add Media > Upload Files > Select Files. Find your image, and decide where you want it in the text (left, right, or center). Make sure you have permission to use the images you do, and include a source credit!

Links: Select the text you want to make into a link. Click the little chain link icon above the text window and enter an address (or cut and paste) – it MUST begin with http:// (your links should look like this)

Tags and Categories: Tags and categories (in the right menu) help index your posts. Just type a new one and click “add”.

Publish!

Click the big blue “Publish” button in the right menu

If you want to save a post for later, click “Save Draft”

Log in later and publish manually

Set a specific time for it to publish automatically

This is a great tool for writing posts on your own time to post during our 10a – 4p Monday-Thursday requirement

Don’t like what you have? Open the post in its own window (click the headline), scroll to the bottom, click “edit” and make the changes you want.

NOTE: Whenever you make an assigned blog post, be sure to check the assignment for where to post the link (typically as a comment to the assignment post but sometimes as an email or tweet)

And remember…

Your first post should not be published until Thursday, Aug. 28 (between 10a and 4p). Regular blogging hours are from 10a-4p, Monday through Thursday. Posts (one required every week) must be made within this time to receive credit! That doesn’t mean you have to write them then – write when you want and save it as a draft to post later – but they MUST be posted then.

Any special requirements for your week’s personal blog will be included in the previous week’s Thursday post, but in general posts need a minimum of three meaningful links and three relevant media content (pics, video, social posts) embeds. Headlines should be specific and relevant; first-paragraph leads should be about 25 words.